The sexual behavior of people in any given society or subculture is guided by certain codes of conduct: written or unwritten rules on how to behave. Cupid on a Leash researches the different codes... Show moreThe sexual behavior of people in any given society or subculture is guided by certain codes of conduct: written or unwritten rules on how to behave. Cupid on a Leash researches the different codes of conduct that guided sexuality in Italy between c. 1450 and 1550. It identifies which codes were present for people of different genders, ages, social classes and sexual orientations. Moreover, the book examines how broadly these codes were shared within the source material, and analyzes the roots and rationalizations of their existence. A wide variety of sources, written by male as well as female authors, is used to analyze these sexual codes of conduct. These sources range from romance epics, novellas, and treatises on love, to sermons, anatomical treatises, and personal correspondence. By revealing the many, often contradictory codes of conduct guiding sexuality, Cupid on a Leash provides insight into the complexities of societal expectations in Renaissance Italy. It studies the arguments that people used to defend sexual codes of conduct, and analyzes the logic behind these arguments, seeking to explain why they were considered so important. Show less
a successful book in Italy and then beyond the Alps. While the literary reception of Ariosto inFrance has already been widely studied since the work of Alexandre Ciorănescu and SijbrandKeyser, this... Show morea successful book in Italy and then beyond the Alps. While the literary reception of Ariosto inFrance has already been widely studied since the work of Alexandre Ciorănescu and SijbrandKeyser, this PhD dissertation consists of an analysis of the diffusion of this masterpiece throughthe prism of the loving passion. In the sixteenth century, during the first French reception, readers and authors felt passionately about amorous episodes, and more specifically ones about the madness of desperate lovers. French authors took several figures of unfortunate lovers from the abundance of characters in Orlando furioso. Besides, thanks to its plasticity, Ariosto’s text was able to inspire most literary genres. We study the evolution of this representation of passion in French translations and imitations, both through a diachronic analysis and an analysis by literary genre. While in the first translations the French transposition can sometimes influence the representation of passion, the love poetry adopted more aesthetical an approach of these episodes. We insist on the 1570s, as they demonstrate the presence of remake in the epic genre but also of many partial imitations. Thus, the representation of the sentiment amoureux will progressively be depicted with more diversity and complexity until the beginning of the seventeenth century when it evolved towards a more psychological approach. Show less
For centuries commentaries have played a fundamental role in the formation, transmission and use of knowledge in many fields of scholarship and science, especially in fields in which the starting... Show moreFor centuries commentaries have played a fundamental role in the formation, transmission and use of knowledge in many fields of scholarship and science, especially in fields in which the starting point for knowledge or information is the study of an (authoritative) text – e.g. theology, law, literature. This dissertation discusses a selection of early modern Latin commentaries on the Aeneid. The early modern Virgilian commentary can be seen as a nucleus of scholarship and learning, encompassing information from a broad range of disciplines (e.g. rhetoric, cultural history, the sciences), and is therefore crucial for the understanding of early modern learning and scholarship. Moreover, the early modern Virgilian commentary stands in the centuries-old tradition of Virgilian scholarship, which runs almost continuously from classical antiquity. In this study the Virgilian commentary is used as a lens to look at the complex developments taking place in early modern learning and scholarship (e.g. the rise of the sciences). Each of the case studies of this dissertation provides insight into an important research question in modern Renaissance studies through the perspective of the Virgilian commentary. Moreover, this study presents and translates a wealth of commentary lemmata from early modern Latin Virgilian commentaries. Show less
This book gives a survey of the career of the Renaissance antiquary Jacopo Strada (Mantua 1515- Vienna 1588). Aspects discussed include his background, education and artistic training; his early... Show moreThis book gives a survey of the career of the Renaissance antiquary Jacopo Strada (Mantua 1515- Vienna 1588). Aspects discussed include his background, education and artistic training; his early activities in Germany; his trips to Lyon and Rome and the origins of his huge collection of visual documentation of Antiquity and of canonical modern works of art; and his appointment as architect and antiquary to Emperors Ferdinand I and Maximilian II. The second part discusses Strada’s activities as architect and his share in projects of his imperial patrons in Vienna, the Munich Antiquarium, his own house and for private patrons. The third part discusses Strada’s role in purveying antiques and works of art for his patrons, contents and function of his own collection or “Musaeum”, and his ambition to set up as an international publisher. The conclusion first defines Strada’s self-image as an antiquary; applying some of the terms of Everett Rogers’ theory of the diffusion of innovations, it then demonstrates how, and to what extent, Strada’s activities and the presence of his "Musaeum" in Vienna contributed to the acceptance of the ideas and the artistic idiom of the Italian High Renaissance to the north of the Alps. Show less
This dissertation explores the appropriation of Greek antiquity by Byzantine scholars in Renaissance Italy. The Byzantines had traditionally seen themselves as Romans, yet Byzantine scholars in... Show moreThis dissertation explores the appropriation of Greek antiquity by Byzantine scholars in Renaissance Italy. The Byzantines had traditionally seen themselves as Romans, yet Byzantine scholars in Italy claimed to be the descendants of the ancient Greeks. This study explains for what reasons these scholars changed their traditional self-image and charts the rhetorical strategies with which they substantiated their new claim. The first part of the study shows that their distinctively Greek self-representation had been prefigured in 15th-century Byzantium and was stimulated by humanist bias and stereotypes in Italy. Whereas Hellenism remained suspect in Byzantium, ‘being Greek’ could be socially advantageous in the context of Italian humanism. The second part of the dissertation offers four case studies dealing with the self-representation of, chiefly, Bessarion, George Trapezuntius of Crete, Janus Lascaris, and Johannes Gemistus. Exploring a variegated range of underexposed sources in Greek, Latin, and Italian, these chapters show how Byzantine scholars in different contexts used notions such as cultural ownership, ethnic kinship, and territoriality to authenticate their claim that they were the legitimate heirs and descendants of the ancient Greeks. The case-studies also illustrate how (post-)Byzantines could use this claim to advance their social and political agendas in Italy. Show less
Considering that early modern scholars often referred to the Middle Ages as an uncouth period of darkness and ignorance, it is surprising that humanist historians by no means neglected the era. The... Show moreConsidering that early modern scholars often referred to the Middle Ages as an uncouth period of darkness and ignorance, it is surprising that humanist historians by no means neglected the era. The central hypothesis of this book is that the ways in which historians such as Reynier Snoy, Adrianus Barlandus, Petrus Divaeus, and Janus Dousa Sr described the medieval past can be explained by the political context from which their writings originated and in which they were often directly involved. This context was marked by upheavals caused by factors such as the Habsburg centralization policy, the Reformation, and the Dutch Revolt. This book brings forward key characteristics of early modern medievalism, showing how concepts of the medieval were used as rhetorical tools, how medieval forms and ideals were appropriated, and how the classical heritage was involved in the representation of the medieval. This analysis is informed by an approach to historical writing that differs from what is common in the study of sixteenth-century historiography. Historiography is regarded not as a means to uncover the historical truth, but as narrative rhetoric. It deploys narrative techniques and intertextual allusions and plays with genre expectations in order to convey its message. Show less
